Dental models are used in the teaching of dental students, comprising an artificial jaw typically made of plaster or plastic, with teeth mounted therein in a lifelike manner. Such dental models have been used to teach calculus detection and probing skills, subgingival scaling, and surgical techniques. For example, an artificial calculus can be painted onto the teeth, while an artificial gingiva or gum, made of an elastomer, may be applied to the dental model in a position corresponding to the natural position of the gum. Thus, the student can gain experience in dealing with dental procedures that involve spreading the "gum" away from the tooth or cutting of the gum.
There is of course a need to provide periodontal teaching models which closely simulate the actual tactile experience and the general "feel" of an actual living patient. The models of the prior art have exhibited a substantial tactile difference from the real world of dentistry, in that the teeth in the artificial jaw, unlike real teeth in a real jaw, are generally rigidly positioned. Real, living teeth of a patient exhibit a certain, very small, resilient, flexible mounting, which changes the tactile experience of a dental procedure performed on real patients from that of students practicing on prior art dental models. Additionally, the gingiva or gum, when used on the dental models of the prior art, has not provided a close simulation to the real gum tissues of actual dentistry. Hence, the experience of the novice working with the gum of his first dental patient is substantially different from the prior art dental models upon which he may have practiced.
Additionally, there is a need to provide the novice dentist with a substantial variety of tooth arrays in dental models where the teeth are presented with varying degrees of malocclusion, calculus layers, receding "gums", and the like. In the prior art, this is difficult to accomplish because, often, a new dental model comprising jaw and teeth must be provided for each situation.
In accordance with this invention, dental models are provided which have a great variability of use, in that the teeth are easily removable from the artificial jaw, so that different tooth and gum configurations, representing different dental clinical situations, can be applied to the same jaw. This permits frequent reuse of the jaw, and often the teeth, in a variety of simulated clinical situations.
Additionally, the teeth, as mounted in the artificial jaw in accordance with this invention, exhibit a certain resilience of mounting that more closely simulates the actual clinical situation found in the teeth of a patient, when compared with the dental models of the prior art.
Furthermore, the dental model of this invention may carry an artificial gingiva which more closely simulates the actual gum tissue of a dental patient than in prior art situations, to provide the novice dentist with a training situation which is substantially closer to clinical reality.